THE effort by the Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA) to give young Jamaicans more exposure to the sport of table tennis is progressing in the right direction.

So said JTTA president Godfrey Lothian, who told the Jamaica Observer at the end of the National Championship on Saturday that the 2014 edition “was a very successful one with a number of young players coming to the fore”.

“And for this reason table tennis, as a whole, could reap the benefits of a successful year as players as well as coaches will be kept busy throughout the rest of the year,” he said, adding that there will be some useful events abroad that will open avenues to provide ample exposure and experience for players and coaches to further their development.

Last Friday Ryan Peters, a 21-year-old native of Portland, who is now attending the University of the West Indies on a table tennis scholarship, and Brittany Murray, also of Portland, left Jamaica to attend the Pan American Festival in Mexico. Army Sergeant Phillip Drummond is the accompanying coach/manager.

Today, the JTTA has a team of 10 players and officials departing the island for the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. The four women on the team include newly crowned national singles champion, 13-year-old Dadrian Lewis, dethroned eight-time champion Yvonne Foster, runner-up Shenique Clare, along with Kaydian Carney.

The men’s team will comprise three-time national champion Kane Watson, runner-up Simon Tomlinson and Christopher Marsh (all three of whom were members of the first Jamaica national team to ever win a World Table Tennis Championship when they, along with other team member Michael Hyatt, played undefeated to win Division Five at the WTTC in Tokyo, Japan, in May.

Jamaica’s performance was so strong that they skipped a class and will now compete in Division Three.

Dale Parham is the fourth member.

Rohan Schloss will be team coach, while David Miller, executive director of the Fair Trading Commission, will act as manager.

Lothian also mentioned that over 170 entries were received as a growing interest in the sport, which had fallen away over past years.

The JTTA president said that there is an area that he would like to highlight and that is the coming of age of a number of young, bright and precocious talent that reside among both males and females.

“When you take a good look at the Under-9, 11 and 13 these are diamonds being unearthed. Eight-year-old Kyle Davidson, son of coach Richard Davidson, playing sumptuous table tennis in the nine and under category, with Daniel Isaacs doing likewise in 11 and under, and Cheryl Greene taking over from Dadrian Lewis, who moved from 13 and under to become national women’s champion.

“The JTTA will spare no opportunity in exposing our youngster to overseas junior tournaments and in September the JTTA will be sending a 20-member delegation to Puerto Rico for the Precadet, while a 10-man team will go off to Cuba for the senior Caribbean Championships in October,” he noted.